Saturday, May 25, 2013

Thursday, May 23, 2013

I especially love when a painting is exhibited with its studies. This almost never happens.

Herbert James Draper, Ulysses and the Sirens 1909

Homer's description of the sirens was rather vague. Draper depicts them as mermaids and young women. We see a crew of virile sailors apparently terrified by three nude girls. As they boldly climb aboard the vessel, the sirens change from mermaids into women.

eroticism. In the behind-the-scene photos, the models look exhausted and bored.

Freud theorized that two instincts motivate people: Eros- sexuality and the drive for life, and Thanatos-aggression and the will for destruction. The conflict of both impulses (pleasure/death) appears in nearly every episode of this season's Mad Men.